The Trials and Tribulations of an Auror:  Case 43
by owleyes999
Summary: Draco and Ginny are stranded in the desert after a Portkey mishap while trying to apprehend a criminal.  They must somehow manage to work together to not only capture the escaped convict but also make it home.  AU, compliant with OOTP and below.


Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers. No money is being made and not copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

The Trials and Tribulations of an Auror: Case #43

Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley woke slowly to the feel of the sun scorching her back and arms. Her head ached and her mouth felt like coarse wool. Opening her eyes, her vision swam with bright pinpricks of light. She had absolutely no idea where she was or how she may have gotten there. She hoped she was dreaming, but she had never felt this horrible while sleeping before. Maybe sometime during the war but she was fairly positive that that was over with. A groaning somewhere to her left was the first indication she wasn't alone. Then, as if a dam broke, her most recent memories came flooding back to her.

Elias Hornwell, a notorious Muggle Murder who she'd been after for months and had finally apprehended, had escaped from right under her nose. _Thanks to Draco effing Malfoy_, she thought sitting up and clutching her pounding head.

As if on cue, "Where the hell are we Weasley?" Malfoy asked. "It's bloody hot." His tone implied this was clearly her fault.

Looking around for the first time, Ginny took stock of their location. All she could see in any direction was sand—lots of sand and hazy blue sky. And he was right—it was hot, at least 38 centigrade. At least the sun, seeming much larger than normal, looked to be past its zenith.

Besides Malfoy and herself though, there wasn't a soul in sight—or anything at all really but sand and wind.

"Well, since I wasn't the one who decided to tackle us into the Experimental Portkeys," she replied angrily, "I can't be sure, but I would guess a desert, probably near the equator." Then after standing up and turning around she added petulantly, "This is entirely your fault you know."

"Weasley," Draco said flatly, "He had your wand and was strangling you. I probably saved your life." He stood up at this point, shedding his heavy red Auror robes. That didn't seem like a bad idea to Ginny; she felt like she was suffocating in the wool robes that, while ideal for a London winter, were unbearable in the heat of the middle of the desert.

"I had it completely under control Malfoy," she retorted angrily, tearing off her own robes as well. "Besides, if you had just believed me when I said Gawain gave me full jurisdiction to bring Hornwell in, he would be in a nice little holding cell on Level 10 and none of this would have happened."

"My fault?" Draco looked at her incredulously. "You put your wand down on the desk! What kind of Auror has that kind of negligence?"

"For a second! And only because you wouldn't believe my paperwork was right and I had to prove it to you!"

"Your handwriting is chicken scratch. Anyone would have doubted that."

"That's not the point! I was holding fucking Elias Hornwell! And my handwriting is perfectly fine!"

"Oh yeah? Well what kind of stun job was that? He woke up! Face it, this one is all on you."

"I caught him! I brought him in—I did my job. And I didn't have to stun him—"

"You didn't even stun him," Draco interrupted in shock, "Christ Weasley, you did botch this one all to hell."

"I didn't stun him," Ginny said with a glare, "Because I cursed him head first into a wall. I had that nitwit Belby stun him afterwards so he could feel somewhat useful. It seemed safe enough." _No one could be that incompetent, could they?_ She thought with a grimace toward her perfectly nice but rather daft partner. _He's just too green to be fully field rated. _They had only just been assigned to each other the week prior but he had already proved to be a liability. Incognito and stealth seemed to be words beyond his comprehension.

"You trusted Belby with that? I'm amazed Gawain ever let you be in charge of this case." The look of derision he gave her did nothing to calm her temper.

"I caught him! _I_ caught him by myself," Ginny practically shouted, her hands on her hips. "_You_ let him get away! It's your fault! Now look, I just want to get back to Headquarters and sort this out." She reached into the robes she was holding to search for her wand.

"Weasley," Draco said. "We don't even know where we are. How the hell—"

"Fuck!" she shouted suddenly, throwing her robes down. "Where is my wand?"

Almost simultaneously a look of comprehension and horror dawned across both of their faces.

"He still has your wand?" Draco said curtly, scanning their surroundings with new intent and immediately drawing his own wand.

"Yes," she said quietly. "He must. He was still holding it when we fell. Do you think he came through with us? We fell onto that whole rack of Portkeys." She vaguely remembered his hands be jerked painfully from their hold around her neck. She suddenly noticed the soreness there as she started to scan their nearby area, walking out to examine the ground. She probably already had bruises developing but she ignored them in light of the possible danger.

"'There's a good chance," Draco said. "We both fell into the rack as well and ended up in the same place."

"Come look here Malfoy," Ginny called from a few meters away. "I think he came through." On the ground the sand was clearly disturbed and only one set of tracks could be seen leaving. "You can see a little blood here," she said bending over, squinting at the bright reflection the sun gave off the sand. "Probably from his head wound."

"That was quite a knock you gave him," he said casually, following the tracks further away. "But look, he walked a couple meters and then vanished."

"He couldn't have Apparated," she said, wiping sweat off her forehead. The back of her shirt felt soaked through already. _Damn,_ she thought, _How does Draco look so unaffected by this heat? _"You have to know where you're going _and_ where you are to do that. And there's no way he could know where we are."

"Fair point but he does still have your wand which leaves a lot of possibilities open," he said as he scanned the horizon, having to squint against the intense sun. _Gods but I hate the heat. _There really was nothing to see but more sand. Ginny was still bent over the tracks in the sand.

"You know," she said from behind him. "I think there's enough blood here for a decent tracking charm to hold. I'm not sure how long, but at least twelve hours if we can preserve the blood in this heat."

"That's not a bad idea," Draco said sounding surprised as he walked back to her.

"I'm not one of the most top-rated Aurors for no reason you know," Ginny said, faintly exasperated. She was mainly focused on carefully gathering the blood stained sand onto a spare piece of parchment she found in her robe though. It was the self same Request for Incarceration form that had started this mess. "You'll have to do the spell though, if you can handle it. I know it's been a while since you've been in the field now that your main concern is paperwork."

"I'm the Head of all Dark Magic Priority One cases—I think I can manage a simple Tracking Charm," he sneered. "Just because I prefer thinking a little instead of running around chasing dead leads doesn't mean I've dropped my field rating."

"Well, get on with it then," Ginny said irritably as she carefully held out the rust colored sand. Draco brandished his wand and spoke the incantation. Nothing happened. He repeated it, flicking his wand with more force. Wind blew some of the grains of sand away. "Can't do it, eh?" Ginny asked a bit smugly.

"Something's wrong." A puzzled frown creased Draco's forehand as he squinted down at his wand. Sweat was beading at his temples and his cheeks were already turning pink with sunburn.

"Here, hand over your wand. I'll do it."

"What and risk it backfiring and destroying our only chance at this?" Draco said sarcastically. "Besides, I don't think it will work. Something's not right."

"The only thing wrong here is that you're clearly incompetent," Ginny said angrily. A drop of sweat fell off her nose as she folded the blood stained sand neatly into a packet. She would just have to figure a way to use it later.

"I think my magic isn't working," Draco said, rather calmly considering. "Look." He waved his wand. Again, nothing.

"Well obviously, you weren't even doing anything!"

"I was conjuring sunscreen," Draco said. "And none showed up. We definitely have a problem."

"Are you serious?" Ginny said in disbelief, "Of all the ways you could test to see if your magic was working, you try to conjure sunscreen?"

"Weasley, we are in a desert with no supplies," he said as if this explained everything.

"And you chose to conjure sunscreen before water? Before food? Before a broom? Your vanity really is astounding Malfoy."

"Fine. _Aguamenti._" A small puff of steam went up from the tip of Draco's wand. He gave her a look that practically screamed "I told you so."

"Damn," Ginny said softly, losing her anger. "What the hell are we going to do now? We don't even know where we are."

"Which begs the question, how did Hornwell get anywhere?" Draco said thoughtfully.

"Aren't you the least bit worried about why we can't use magic?"

"Of course I am," he snapped. "But it does at least give us a better idea of where we are. There are only so many places where there is magical interference this strong."

"But what are we going to do?" Ginny said near panicking. "We can't very well walk our way out of the desert." The stress of their situation on top of losing Hornwell _and_ her wand was piling up on her. _And Merlin I'm thirsty_.

"I don't—"Draco stopped, getting that look Ginny knew from strategy meetings meant that he had thought of something truly insane. Going over to his robes he had left piled on the sand, he pulled out a small silver bell and rang it. The ringing sounded loud in the dead heat of the desert.

Ginny stared. Another bead of sweat dripped off her nose. Clearly the sun had already driven Malfoy insane. _It's going to be up to me to get us out of here_, she thought. "Malfoy, what the..." she trailed off uncertainly. A rather small figure in a dark green tea towel appeared out of nowhere.

"Master Draco," said a high, nasally voice, "What does you be needing?"

"You called a house elf? That worked?" Ginny asked in shock.

"Why wouldn't it?" Draco asked lazily, though internally he was hugely relieved. He didn't know what they would have done if Bert hadn't come. Ginny just sputtered. "Bert, Weasley here and I need to travel back to London."

"Of course," Bert the Elf said as if showing up in the middle of a desert to fetch his Master and some strange woman was completely routine. _Then again, maybe it is.. Who knows what kind of benders he goes on with all those tarts the Society pages show him with,_ Ginny thought with a level of venom that surprised her. After all, it wasn't her business what he did on his own time.

Her train of thought was interrupted however when Bert stepped forward and took hold of each them. Her vision seemed to constrict for a moment and she closed her eyes against the slight vertigo. There was a soft pop and Ginny opened her eyes to meet Malfoy's grey ones. They were still facing each other, still in the desert, but without the house elf.

"Aargh!" Draco made a strangled noise of frustration as he held his hands up to his face. "Are we never going to get out of this sun?"

Ginny had to suppress a completely irreverent laugh in this increasingly ridiculous situation at Malfoy's extreme concern for his complexion. _Trust a Malfoy to still keep his vanity in a situation like this._ "Well, at least he was holding on to our shirt sleeves and not our arms," she said with a smile she wasn't able to quite hold in as she eyed the raggedly torn hole in her blouse. The glare she got in return clearly said her companion did not see this as particularly favorable.

Bert popped back in before Draco could work up a suitable response. "Ahh, Master Draco.." the elf began hesitantly. "It seems that Bert is unable to magically transport you.."

"Yes, I quite figured that one out," Draco said icily. Bert visibly swallowed, for once looking nervous.

"Perhaps you could still bring us supplies," Ginny suggested hastily. She did not want to see any harm come to Bert when this affair was clearly out of his control. And she did not trust Malfoy to see it in quite the same light. Plus they still desperately needed some way to travel and chase Hornwell. "And you could get a message to Headquarters for us to let them know what is going on. Gawain's probably furious with the state we left the office in." Ginny smiled a bit at that thought.

"Yes, Bert can do this for Master Draco and his red headed friend!" Bert said eagerly. "Bert will tell them the Master is in the sun in the desert far away!"

"Wait," Draco looked up abruptly, "You know where we are?"

"Of course, Bert can always find Master Draco..." the elf trailed off slightly confused.

"No you dimwitted elf, you know where precisely we are? As in you can tell us how to get to civilization," Draco said. He looked ready to lose his patience entirely Ginny noticed and that did not bode well for their only source of survival.

"Master Draco does not know he is in the Sahara?"

"What?" Ginny exclaimed.

"Where exactly?" Draco demanded.

"Bert doesn't know how to explain exactly... Somewhere in Egypt but there is strong magic. Old magic."

"That explains why you can't do any spells Malfoy," Ginny said. "I visited Egypt before to see my brother and there are strange things that happen here. Bill said we had to be careful not to leave the designated magical tourist areas."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Malfoy said through gritted teeth.

"Bert could bring you a map!" the elf said brightly.

"Yes Bert! That would be helpful! And a Tracking Potion and some supplies. And get some parchment so we can send a message to Gawain. And we'll need a way to travel…" Ginny trailed off thoughtfully as she tried to put a plan together. Capturing Elias Hornwell was still her top priority and he couldn't have that much of lead on them. Draco Malfoy wasn't her ideal partner by any means but he was a capable Auror despite their differences. _We could still catch the bastard_, Ginny thought with a determined set of her lips.

"I'm guessing broom magic won't work here either," Draco put in. Seeing that there wasn't going to be an easy way out of their predicament, they may as well catch the bastard that landed them here. "Flying carpets would probably work but the Malfoy collection was seized when the Manor was purged of Dark Arts."

Ginny looked at him strangely. "Your family kept magic carpets?"

"Of course, why wouldn't they?"

"It just seems so," Ginny struggled for words, "...Harmless."

"Well, they are illegal in Britain," Draco said with a teasing glint in his eye. "And they were stored under the east wing drawing rooms."

Ginny felt her face forming a smile and stopped herself. That sounded nearly friendly and being on friendly terms with Malfoy was dangerous she sternly told herself. Pointedly ignoring his last comment, "We can't follow Hornwell on foot."

"What do you suggest then since brooms and carpets are out? Travel like Muggles? In the desert?" Draco sounded appalled at the thought.

"What other choice do we have Malfoy? All magical forms are out."

Looking highly displeased and very pink at this point, Draco turned back to his house elf. "Bring the items Weasley said. And find something for us to get around on because I am _not_ walking out of the Sahara."

"Yes sir Master Draco." Bert vanished again leaving two very sweaty and disgruntled Aurors.

Ginny sat down where she was. She pulled her robes over her head to block the sun, but it really didn't help. Draco was sitting a few meters away, turning his wand over in his hands and murmuring words. If he was trying to cast any spells, it still wasn't working. "How long do you think he'll be?" she asked.

"Not long if he knows what's good for him," Draco said darkly.

Not wanting to talk to Malfoy anymore than necessary, Ginny watched her shadow grow longer and tried to think where Hornwell might have gone. Alexandria and Cairo were the two most likely places relatively nearby. _But how did he manage to get anywhere?_ Ginny thought for the hundredth time. He had been thoroughly searched and all magical items in his possession had been removed. Granted, he had her wand, but that didn't do him much good here.

Growing drowsy in the heat with thoughts that lead nowhere, Ginny was drifting off when she heard a strange rasping belching sound. Looking up startled she saw Bert was back with two large packs and—

"A camel?" Draco asked in disbelief. "Why in Merlin's name did you bring a camel?"

"I'm more concerned why there is only_ one_ camel," Ginny put in.

Looking completely unruffled by the glares he was being given, Bert handed Draco a piece of parchment. "The Lady Malfoy send this. Bert must go back now. She said ring if Master Draco must but she needs Bert." And with that Bert vanished back to the cool comforts of Malfoy Manor. Ginny was extremely envious of Bert then realized she was wishing she was a Malfoy family house elf. She shook her head slightly to clear it; the desert was already doing strange things to her. Looking over at Draco, she saw him reading what looked to be a letter.

"Um, Malfoy, care to explain?" Ginny said as she got up to walk over.

Thrusting the parchment in her hands, he grumbled, "My mother..."

Ginny read:

_My darling Draco,_

_Here I was sitting in the parlor with Edeva Parkinson finalizing the plans for the ball for the Struggling Magical Painters Guild (they're just so very poor, you know, dear, and so artistic!) when I call for Bert to instruct him on the floral arrangements we need. And to my surprise he informs me that he is on an errand in the middle of the day for my son who seems to have gone gallivanting off to Egypt in the middle of the work week! And with some red headed girl! _

_Well after much confusion, I understood you had gotten yourself stuck there when I suddenly realized I could help! I have been reading Arabian Nights you see and it seems that camels are the only way to get anywhere. (Well except for a carpet, but the Ministry confiscated our collection, otherwise I would have a gorgeous Persian to send you.) But then, I realized I had no idea where find a camel when Edeva, the saint she is, said that she happened to have one from her granddaughter's Eleanora's birthday party. (They were giving all the children rides on the filthy thing apparently. I said I would never let any Malfoy children do such a thing, but what can you expect from a woman who let her daughter marry a Longbottom?)_

_So, I have it all settled darling. I got together everything you could possibly need for your vacation and you can take this camel to the nearest Apparation point and you will still be back in time for the ball on Saturday. And do bring the girl you are with—you know I love to meet all of your little girlfriends._

_And don't you fret about telling Auror Robards about your little jaunt to the Sahara. Dear Gawain and I have always been able to see eye to eye. I'll send him a little note explaining it perfectly. _

_Your loving Mother_

Ginny looked up bewildered. "Is she serious?"

"I'm afraid so," Draco said with a sigh of long suffering. "We'd best see what she's sent us. Hopefully Bert snuck the Tracking Potion in so we can still follow Hornwell, though he's got a huge lead on us now." He went over to the nearest pack, careful to avoid the camel. Ginny did likewise, first pulling out a bottle clearly marked water and taking a long drink. Draco of course found the sun screen first and was liberally applying it.

Poking around in her pack Ginny found three already much melted chocolate bars which she threw out. The camel immediately investigated the chocolate goo and grunted when he found it edible. There was also a copy of _Arabian Nights_, several long pieces of colorful cloth, a parasol, and then she found a bottle marked Tracking Charm and a leather-bound scroll.

Pulling both items out, as well as the parasol she tossed to Draco who opened it with interest, she spread the scroll out on the sand in front of her. "This map should show us exactly where we are," Draco said. He was leaning over her, so the parasol covered them both. Its charms must have held because the air was noticeably cooler under its shade. "Here we are." His arm brushed past her as he pointed to a blue dot about 300 kilometers south of Alexandria. Very small script labeled the dots as Draco Malfoy and Ginevra Weasley.

Ginny shivered a little. _Probably from the rapidly cooler temperature_, she thought absently. She was very aware as Draco reached across her for the potion. Pulling out the sand she had kept with Elias Hornwell's blood on it, she made a funnel of the paper and poured it into the bottle Draco had uncapped. He swirled the potion around a few times clockwise and poured it onto the map in front of them. A faint red line appeared, starting where their own blue dot was and moving slowly north east, closer to the Nile. The name Elias Hornwell wrote itself at the end of the slowly moving line. He was only thirty or forty kilometers away.

Smiling with satisfaction Ginny said, "We've got him. "

"Not quite Weasley," Draco chuckled. "We've still got to catch him. And we've only got our one trusty camel."


End file.
